How the Spierig Brothers Got Back to Their “Roots” With ‘Jigsaw’

After a seven-year absence, the Saw franchise returned to theaters in the form of Jigsaw, directed by Michael and Peter Spierig. The eighth film in the series offered an opportunity to embrace what made the franchise so compelling, which also offered the Spierigs the opportunity to get back to their filmmaking origins.

“To me, it felt like it was, I guess going back to our roots in some way, going back to the Undead roots,” Michael shared with ComicBook.com about what brought them to the project. “We had made a film Predestination, which was quite a different film for us, a film that we’re really proud of, and going to Jigsaw felt like stepping back to our roots, which was a fun thing to do. We just love doing some bloody gory stuff, we just figured let’s go and have some fun, that’s how it started.”

The brothers’ first film, Undead, depicted a zombie-like invasion after a series of meteorites hit a small Australian town. The film delivered both humor and horror, featuring one of the more shocking endings in the genre. Their next film was their American breakthrough, the vampire film Daybreakers. They teamed up with that film’s star Ethan Hawke in the subsequent Predestination.

Knowing how beloved the Saw franchise is, many filmmakers might shy away from tackling the familiar property, yet the Spierigs knew it was an opportunity they couldn’t turn down, offering up the chance to put their own unique spin on the story.

“It’s a very tricky thing to go make a movie that has had six movies, seven movies prior to us signing up,” Peter shared. “So you’ve got to be respectful of that, and we wanted to offer something new and different, but at the same time, you can’t stray too far, because then you’re upsetting the fans who have followed it for so long. You want to stay within the world, but also bend it and twist it a bit. We wanted to try and focus more on thriller than straight out torture gore, and while there’s definitely blood and guts in there, I think it’s one of the, as far as torture and gore goes, one of the tamest since the first film, and that was intentional.”

You can see Jigsaw now on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD.